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while it's obviously very funny and relatable and worth talking about because everyone knows at least 5 movies or shows or comics that have done this exact trope and it's old and bored and exhausting

we still need to be careful when we reduce the historical complexity of racial stereotyping to such broad simplified strokes

because it can very quickly become a problem, especially for the writers and artists who actually belong to these racial groups

because when someone actually wants to write an authentic, interesting, three dimensional character of a specific race (whether they're explicitly that race or are just some fantasy species that's racially coded as a real world race) sometimes that character will have traits that are normally considered 'stereotypes' for that race, and so it might automatically come across as a misinformed stereotype.

this isn't without good reason. the reason we're so on guard with spotting stereotypes is because those stereotypes have been weaponized against their respective cultures / races before (and many still are). there's rarely ever anything 'harmless' about the depiction of the "greedy Jew" or the "savage red-skinned Indian". so these 'less obvious' stereotypes can often be used as dogwhistles for hateful racist rhetoric.

but we always, always, ALWAYS have to be careful when taking the offensive towards perceived stereotyping and casting such a wide net over what could be considered malicious.

because if you affiliate one simple normal trait as being an automatic stereotype when assigned to a person of a certain race, you're simultaneously limiting what people of that race are allowed to be, which is also in itself extremely harmful, and often was even the point of these stereotypes becoming weaponized in the first place - to force people of these races to be ashamed of who they were so they'd conform to a majority ideal of who they should be.

writing in this way can more often than not make for weaker characters, especially when it results in budding writers with good intentions (or even professionals within the industry) becoming afraid of their own characters and story because they immediately fear writing something that could be harmful. audience members can tell when a work is afraid of them.

yes, it's always important to do your research! it's always important to study the relationship between stereotypes and the races that these stereotypes were weaponized towards. if you're not the race you're trying to depict in your story (esp if you're trying to depict cultural-specific stuff like setting your story in Japan or writing about a Polynesian tribe), for the love of god, speak with someone from that culture who's willing to help out so you can get an informed opinion. this is bare minimum shit.

context also matters. obviously a white person taking from Indigenous culture to write Pocahontas set in space isn't gonna come across as helpful or sincere as an Indigenous person writing that same story. trust me, this trope of the "angry wild brown person" is EXHAUSTING when you know for a fact it was made by someone who's never actually seen or met an Indigenous person before. it's not representation at that point, it's just cultural tourism / theft.

but remember, before they were stereotypes, they were just normal human traits, oftentimes traits that were culturally significant to these groups before they were weaponized against them by majority groups in power who stood to benefit from turning their own traits against them, as a means to disempower them on a social, economic, and political level.

speaking from personal experience as an Indigenous person, the stereotype of the "angry savage Indian" wasn't created in a vacuum, it was propaganda created by English colonizers specifically designed to villainize Indigenous peoples who didn't conform to oppressive English norms and were simply fighting back to defend themselves.

so when I write about my Indigenous-coded fantasy OC whose aggressive small-attack-dog personality was largely influenced by the experiences of the angry little undiagnosed Indigenous-in-an-all-white-school teenager who came up with her 15+ years ago?

please for the love of god don't reduce her to a stereotype. we both deserve better than that.

ofc I'd like to believe most people who see the above graphic will know it's an oversimplification for the sake of comedy. But I also know from experience how much budding writers - especially younger folks - tend to internalize these ironic gags that are pulling double duty in trying to make a point. They see the point and immediately go "wait, shit, am I doing that?!" and then they panic and stress out and lose their capacity to understand nuance or context because all they might interpret on their end is, "DON'T MAKE BROWN CHARACTERS ANGRY!!!" (especially neurodivergent writers, hello, it's me)

Yes, it's important to check! Because sometimes you really are misinformed! But that doesn't automatically mean you're racist or that your work is now exclusively propaganda material.

A lot of us write from what we know, and the unfortunate but inevitable reality is that we're all susceptible to propaganda from the moment we're born, and much of that propaganda is often extremely subtle and designed to not be noticeable. That's what makes it propaganda in the first place.

So take a step back and examine your reasoning for writing the character the way you did. Analyze the works you were inspired by. Always be willing to look at your work and the works that inspired you through new angles, as that's the only thing that will help you gain confidence and figure out if what you're writing is authentically you or just misinformed.

These things are way more nuanced and complicated than we give them credit for - but also way more flexible !